* These demonstration images contain a custom Mainline based kernel with experimental enhancements to the boards supported. They are usually updated about once a month, as new features/enhancements get added by the community. Currently, this image ships with two kernel's "x" which is for mainline omap3+ devices (BeagleBoard/PandaBoard) and the "psp" which is for specifically the BeagleBone, as much of the kernel support for this device is currently in a TI Git kernel tree on [http://arago-project.org arago-project]. The kernel is stress tested by a farm of Panda/Beagle's running 24/7 under a heavy load (building gcc trunk/mainline kernel).

* These demonstration images contain a custom Mainline based kernel with experimental enhancements to the boards supported. They are usually updated about once a month, as new features/enhancements get added by the community. Currently, this image ships with two kernel's "x" which is for mainline omap3+ devices (BeagleBoard/PandaBoard) and the "psp" which is for specifically the BeagleBone, as much of the kernel support for this device is currently in a TI Git kernel tree on [http://arago-project.org arago-project]. The kernel is stress tested by a farm of Panda/Beagle's running 24/7 under a heavy load (building gcc trunk/mainline kernel).

* In this example, we can see via mount, '''/dev/sda1''' is the x86 rootfs, therefore '''/dev/mmcblk0''' is the other drive in the system, which is the MMC/SD card that was inserted and should be used by ./setup_sdcard.sh...

+

* In this example, we can see via mount, '''/dev/sda1''' is the x86 rootfs, therefore '''/dev/sdd''' is the other drive in the system, which is the MMC/SD card that was inserted and should be used by ./setup_sdcard.sh...

Install image:

Install image:

Line 146:

Line 154:

"board" options:

"board" options:

−

*BeagleBoard Ax/Bx - beagle_bx

+

*BeagleBoard Ax/Bx/Cx/Dx - beagle

−

*BeagleBoard Cx/Dx - beagle_cx

+

*BeagleBoard xM - beagle_xm

−

*BeagleBoard xM - beagle_xm

+

*BeagleBone/Black - bone

−

*BeagleBone Ax - bone

+

*PandaBoard & ES - panda

−

*PandaBoard Ax - panda

+

−

*PandaBoard ES - panda_es

+

So for the BeagleBoard xM:

So for the BeagleBoard xM:

sudo ./setup_sdcard.sh --mmc /dev/sdX --uboot beagle_xm

sudo ./setup_sdcard.sh --mmc /dev/sdX --uboot beagle_xm

+

+

Quick install script for "board" (using new --dtb option)

+

sudo ./setup_sdcard.sh --mmc /dev/sdX --dtb board

+

+

"board" options:

+

*BeagleBoard xM - dt-beagle-xm

+

+

So for the BeagleBoard xM:

+

sudo ./setup_sdcard.sh --mmc /dev/sdX --dtb dt-beagle-xm

*Additional Options

*Additional Options

Line 170:

Line 185:

Then run:

Then run:

−

/bin/bash /boot/uboot/tools/ubuntu/minimal_lxde_desktop.sh

+

/bin/sh /boot/uboot/tools/ubuntu/small-lxde-desktop.sh

Additional Expansion Options:

Additional Expansion Options:

Line 195:

Line 210:

git clone git://github.com/RobertCNelson/omap-image-builder.git

git clone git://github.com/RobertCNelson/omap-image-builder.git

cd omap-image-builder

cd omap-image-builder

−

git checkout v2013.01-1 -b v2013.01-1

+

git checkout v2013.09 -b v2013.09

touch release

touch release

./build_image.sh

./build_image.sh

−

=== Precise 12.04 armhf ===

+

=== Quantal 12.10 armhf ===

−

*Note: dropping after raring 2nd snapshot

+

Image Updated:

Image Updated:

−

*2012-11-29

+

*2013-09-26

−

** Beagle/Panda ES: v3.6.8-x4 kernel

+

** Beagle xM (ONLY): v3.11.1-armv7-x14 kernel (--dtb dt-beagle-xm)

−

** Panda: v3.2.34-x15 kernel (kernel bug, crashes with v3.6.x after a few hours)

* In this example, we can see via mount, '''/dev/sda1''' is the x86 rootfs, therefore '''/dev/mmcblk0''' is the other drive in the system, which is the MMC/SD card that was inserted and should be used by ./setup_sdcard.sh...

You should now be able to unmount the SD card from you PC, insert into your board, reboot and have the OS loaded.

+

This image can be written to a 1Gb (or greater) microSD card, via 'dd' in linux or the win32 image program linked to on CircuitCo's wiki page. First hold down on the boot select button (next to microSD card) and apply

+

power (same procedure as the official CircuitCo images), it should boot into Ubuntu and begin flashing the eMMC, once completed all 4 LED's should be full ON... Simply remove power, remove microSD card and Ubuntu will now boot from eMMC.

First download "http://rcn-ee.net/deb/tools/beagleboard/MLO-beagleboard-v2012.10-r0" as MLO to the Boot Partition

+

−

Then download "http://rcn-ee.net/deb/tools/beagleboard/u-boot-beagleboard-v2012.10-r0.img" as u-boot.img to the Boot Partition

+

−

+

−

==== BeagleBone ====

+

−

Download and copy MLO and U-Boot from here:

+

−

+

−

First download "http://rcn-ee.net/deb/tools/beaglebone/MLO-beaglebone-v2012.10-r1" as MLO to the Boot Partition

+

−

Then download "http://rcn-ee.net/deb/tools/beaglebone/u-boot-beaglebone-v2012.10-r1.img" as u-boot.img to the Boot Partition

+

−

+

−

==== Panda/Panda ES ====

+

−

+

−

Download and copy MLO and U-Boot from here:

+

−

+

−

First download "http://rcn-ee.net/deb/tools/pandaboard/MLO-pandaboard-v2012.10-r1" as MLO to the Boot Partition

+

−

Then download "http://rcn-ee.net/deb/tools/pandaboard/u-boot-pandaboard-v2012.10-r1.img" as u-boot.img to the Boot Partition

+

−

+

−

=== U-Boot Boot Scripts ===

+

−

The version of U-Boot installed or recommended to install uses boot scripts by default. This allows users to easily switch between multiple SD cards with different OS's with different parameters installed. Ubuntu/Debian requires a slight modification to the bootargs line vs. Angstrom, 'ro' vs 'rw'.

+

−

+

−

fixrtc: (only uInitrd) Resets RTC based on last mount

+

−

buddy=${buddy}: (both) Kernel Zippy1/2 Support

+

−

mpurate=${mpurate}: (recommended core clock)

+

−

+

−

==== boot.scr -> uEnv.txt ====

+

−

Newer version's of u-boot now look for a uEnv.txt file vs the older boot.scr, since most boards still use the older boot.scr here's an easy compatibility script:

Revision as of 09:18, 8 October 2013

This page is about running a distribution (ARM EABI) Ubuntu at BeagleBoard. BeagleBoard will boot the (ARM EABI) Ubuntu distribution from the SD card. Since much of this page is generic, it has also be extended to help support devices such as the PandaBoard and BeagleBone.

For the best experience, make sure you have an LCD/HDMI monitor attached to the BeagleBoard's HDMI port, 2 GB/4 GB/8 GB SD card, and a known good USB 2.0 hub with mouse and keyboard.

Method 1: Download a Complete Pre-Configured Image

Demo Image

These demonstration images contain a custom Mainline based kernel with experimental enhancements to the boards supported. They are usually updated about once a month, as new features/enhancements get added by the community. Currently, this image ships with two kernel's "x" which is for mainline omap3+ devices (BeagleBoard/PandaBoard) and the "psp" which is for specifically the BeagleBone, as much of the kernel support for this device is currently in a TI Git kernel tree on arago-project. The kernel is stress tested by a farm of Panda/Beagle's running 24/7 under a heavy load (building gcc trunk/mainline kernel).

In this example, we can see via mount, /dev/sda1 is the x86 rootfs, therefore /dev/sdd is the other drive in the system, which is the MMC/SD card that was inserted and should be used by ./setup_sdcard.sh...

Install image:

Quick install script for "board"

sudo ./setup_sdcard.sh --mmc /dev/sdX --uboot board

"board" options:

BeagleBoard Ax/Bx/Cx/Dx - beagle

BeagleBoard xM - beagle_xm

BeagleBone/Black - bone

PandaBoard & ES - panda

So for the BeagleBoard xM:

sudo ./setup_sdcard.sh --mmc /dev/sdX --uboot beagle_xm

Quick install script for "board" (using new --dtb option)

sudo ./setup_sdcard.sh --mmc /dev/sdX --dtb board

"board" options:

BeagleBoard xM - dt-beagle-xm

So for the BeagleBoard xM:

sudo ./setup_sdcard.sh --mmc /dev/sdX --dtb dt-beagle-xm

Additional Options

--rootfs <ext4 default>

--swap_file <swap file size in MB's>

--addon pico <ti pico projector>

--svideo-ntsc <use ntsc over dvi for video)

--svideo-pal <use pal over dvi for video)

You should now be able to unmount the SD card from you PC, insert into your Board, reboot and have the OS loaded.

Flasher

eMMC: BeagleBone Black

This image can be written to a 1Gb (or greater) microSD card, via 'dd' in linux or the win32 image program linked to on CircuitCo's wiki page. First hold down on the boot select button (next to microSD card) and apply
power (same procedure as the official CircuitCo images), it should boot into Ubuntu and begin flashing the eMMC, once completed all 4 LED's should be full ON... Simply remove power, remove microSD card and Ubuntu will now boot from eMMC.

1: Plug Serial Cable in and Start Serial terminal program
2: Place MMC card in Beagle
3: Push and hold the user button
4: Plug-in power
5: Wait for U-Boot countdown to finish, and let off user button
6: Wait for flashing/script to end
7: Power down, remove and reformat MMC card to final OS

In this example, we can see via mount, /dev/sda1 is the x86 rootfs, therefore /dev/mmcblk0 is the other drive in the system, which is the MMC/SD card that was inserted and should be used by ./mk_mmc.sh...

SGX Video Acceleration

BeagleBone (BBW) & BeagleBone Black (BBB)

NOTHING in this section currently applies to your device, as we are waiting for 3.8/kms/drm bits from TI.

SGX armel/armhf v3.4.x+

Note: This is a still a work in progress, but so far all the basic sgx demos seem to work on my Beagle xM C... Thanks to TI for the special armhf binaries!!! --RobertCNelson 19:48, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

Beagle: GFX_*_libs.tar.gz

tar xf GFX_4_00_00_01_libs.tar.gz (extracts install-SGX.sh and run-SGX.sh)
./install-SGX.sh (copies necessary SGX libs and startup script)
./run-SGX.sh (force run the new init script, or you can just reboot...)

Please note that h264 encoder (dsph264enc) will not work because of missing h264venc_sn.dll64P DSP part. According to this message, it is not available due to a licensing restriction.

Requirements: Kernel built with: "CONFIG_TIDSPBRIDGE=m", for reference, here is what rcn-ee.net's image/deb's are configured for:

ubuntu@arm:~$ zcat /proc/config.gz | grep TIDSP
CONFIG_TIDSPBRIDGE=m
CONFIG_TIDSPBRIDGE_MEMPOOL_SIZE=0x600000
CONFIG_TIDSPBRIDGE_RECOVERY=y
# CONFIG_TIDSPBRIDGE_CACHE_LINE_CHECK is not set
# CONFIG_TIDSPBRIDGE_NTFY_PWRERR is not set
# CONFIG_TIDSPBRIDGE_BACKTRACE is not set

On the xM: if 3.2.x is too jerky, try 3.4.x and use the create_dsp_package.sh script, as the module changed..

Xorg omapfb Drivers

By default Ubuntu will try to use the FBDEV video driver, however for the BeagleBoard we can take advantage of a more software optimized driver (still not using the sgx video hardware) using the NEON extensions of the Cortex-A8 core.

Changing DVI output resolution

Ubuntu 10.10 above defaults to a resolution of 1284x768@16. This is set in the boot.cmd file in the boot partition of the SD card. To change the resolution the DVI output, edit boot.cmd accordingly then recreate the boot.scr file by:

S-Video

Process for setting up S-Video

S-video is tested to be working on 2.6.35-rc5-dl9. BeagleBoard s-video output has traditionally been enabled by "using bootargs (boot arguments) at uboot". In newer versions of the BeagleBoard, the developers have made things easier by instructing U-Boot to look for a .scr file about a dozen lines long that is called cmd.boot.scr, and then follow said parameters. In Angstrom, no boot.scr file is needed, instead, an even easier system is used, where a simple editable .txt file called uEnv.txt containing these parameters suffices (Env is for "environment"). For some reason, in the Ubuntu download files, typically there a bit of convoluted process where uEnv.txt is called up, uEnv.txt says "Go read conf.boot.scr", and cmd.boot.scr sets up the s-video.

To make cmd.boot.scr, create a text file named cmd.boot, then convert it into a .scr file with mkimage by running the following commands on the terminal:

Depending on your TV device, and what desktop you are running a certain amount of screen cutoff is likely to occur. This is called overscan. Typically, around 5-10% of the left and right edges of display are off the screen (using Ubuntu with xfce). This seems to be due to the fact that there is only one display resolution that is set for NTSC: 720 X 482. It is not possible to change this setting in the xfce4 Settings Manager like one would normally be able to do, because other options are greyed out/do not exist. Normally, even if the Settings Manager did not allow for it, a different resolution setting could be obtained by editing the xorg.conf file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf-4, or some similar place. HOWEVER there is no xorg.conf file in the Beagle version of xfce. xrandr shows the display is set to the minimum of 720x574. Adding an xorg.conf does not fix the problem, because Beagle takes its (analog) display resolution settings directly from the display driver, where 720 X 480 (720 X 574 for PAL ) is hard coded in.

An inelegant but usable workaround for the xfce desktop environment is simply to create vertical and horizontal panels that fill up the space that is cut off on the screen. This is not a complete solution, but at least it will prevent maximized windows from going off into nowhere land.

Truly fixing this would involve going into the display driver and reprogramming it to include additional S-video settings besides just NTSC and PAL. Specifically, to make the whole framebuffer fit on the screen you would need to adjust the overlay in the display driver, the OMAP DSS2. (Didn't test this yet. Some pointers from the driver's documentation below)

Building Kernel

Swapfile

Using a File for Swap Instead of a Partition

On the Bealgeboard you should expect to need a swap file given the limitation of how much RAM they have (between 256 MB and 512 MB). Some system programs like apt-get will only run properly when some swap space is present (due to 256 MB not being enough RAM).

Some images such as those from Linaro.org do not come with a swap partition or any swap space allocated.

Under Linux swap space can be either a dedicated partition or a single file. Both can be mounted as swap which the OS can access.

Creating a Swapfile

The following commands will create a 1 gigabyte file, lock access to only root, format it as swap and then advertise it to the OS.

Your Wi-Fi card will automatically load these settings on start up and give network access.

Lightweight window managers

If you intend to use Ubuntu on the BeagleBoard you can install JWM or IceWM to improve performance.

JWM in particular uses little RAM. On a BeagleBoard with 256 MB, using JWM will leave about 60 MB free to run applications in.

Web Apps

Midori

Given that the BeagleBoard has fewer resources than a desktop a light-weight browser is more responsive. Midori is a light-weight browser that still supports flash, etc. It is available from the standard repositories.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midori_%28web_browser%29

Surveillance

Motion

If you have a video source (webcam, IP cam, etc.) which appears as /dev/video0, etc. then you can use the Linux surveillance software "motion" to monitor the video stream and record periods of activity.

To make the BeagleBoard automatically start recording on boot do the following:

Auto Login - run "gdmsetup" from a terminal and select a user to automatically login

Sessions - make sure you don't save any previous X Windows sessions so that it doesn't prompt you for which one you want

motion.conf - amend /etc/motion/motion.conf to the settings you want (that is, video output directory, record only video, record in MPEG-4, set frame rate, etc). Do this with "sudo medit /etc/motion/motion.conf" at a prompt.

Boot script - create a new script in /etc/rc2.d called "S65motion_client" and set permissions appropriately ("sudo chmod 777 /etc/rc2.d/S65motion_client"). Then edit the file so it has the following text in it:

#! /bin/sh
/usr/bin/motion -c /etc/motion/motion.conf

This will now launch the motion client as root when you boot up.

Also note that unless your BeagleBoard can remember the time (battery backed up clock installed) the timestamps will not be correct until you update the time. If your BeagleBoard has an Internet connection this can be achieved with the ntpdate application.

Robotics

ROS

Willow Garage hosts the open source Robotic Operating System (ROS). Whilst it is natively supported in Ubuntu, the official packages are only for the x86 platform. ROS can be installed from source and is generally easy to do so (although slow).

Following the instructions from here will build and install ROS on your BeagleBoard: